Oprah goes political in commencement speech, but doesn't know what she is talking about

I just don't see why anyone would think that it is appropriate to go political, let alone heavy handed political, in a commencement speech.  One is presumably supposed to give a talk about life's lessons.  Yet, Oprah seemed to think her role at a commencement speech at Harvard was to give a political speech.  The fact that she doesn't know what she is talking about almost seems besides the point.

Oprah Winfrey fired some political shots during a commencement speech at Harvard University on Thursday. . . .
Winfrey went on to address gun control, arguing that “the vast majority of people in this country believe in stronger background checks.”
“Because they realize that we can uphold the Second Amendment and also reduce that violence that is robbing us of our children,” she said, referencing the Sandy Hook shooting last year. . . .
Moving on to immigration, the talk show host endorsed “a clear path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants who reside in this country.” . . .

A discussion on the problems with background checks is here and a discussion on the political support for them is here.  At least if one is going to go heavily political at a university, one hopes that the speaker has something deep to say, not warmed over generalities.